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05 January, 2011

Dragon Training

How To Train Your Dragon

I had read a lot of good reviews about this animation which is what made me watch it. Lately there have been loads of mediocre animations and as a result I had given up on watching them (something I enjoyed in the past). Unfortunately, this one also is quite mediocre in terms of the story and the execution. I would however like to state that I have great respect for everyone who makes animation of any sort as I'm somewhat aware of the hard work that goes into making them. Computer animation might have made things easier, nevertheless it is a different form of art and in that sense the movie is excellent. What let's down the movie for me is that it is predictable. We have the young hero who wants to prove himself to his Viking father, but lacks the strength of a Viking. The father who loves his son but also somewhere deep inside regrets having a weak son. There are the obvious supporting characters for the comic element. What follows is that our young hero in an attempt to prove himself discovers that the Dragons, who have been a threat to his community, are misunderstood and can be tamed with a little love and understanding. The remainder of the movie is also quite predictable. He hides this secret and defeats dragons initially during his dragon training sessions. His secret eventually comes out and he is shunned by his father. When the father and the villagers are in trouble towards the climax, the son and his friends come to their rescue.

The comedy throughout is average and thus animations once again will take a back seat in my priority movie watching list. Jay Baruchel (The Sorcerer's Apprentice), Gerard Butler, Christopher Mintz-Plasse are amongst the voice lenders. Although the different types of dragons they have in the movie are ingeniously conceptualized, I still sadly give the movie a 2.5/5 star rating.

6 comments:

Unfortunately, I can't agree with this. I utterly enjoyed it, and I can admit that the story may be considered mediocre but it is driven by Toothless. I think it was the best animated feature this year, and it only a bit excels Tangled.

Fair enough. The only other thing I can say is that I did not watch it in 3D, but considering that I'm not such a fan of 3D I don't think it would have made much of a difference. Tangled I still gave to watch.